Up to 1,000 meals served each day during Panthers training camp

Monday

Aug 11, 2014 at 8:08 PM

Chef Aidan Waite and others may feed 90 players, 18 coaches, three trainers, 45 ball boys, two equipment managers and various scouts, security, corporate personnel, marketing staff and interns and members of the press during a busy lunch.

Throwing a dinner party for eight might make the average person nervous, but Chef Aidan Waite and his staff at Wofford College feed 350 just at lunch on a peak day during the Carolina Panthers training camp.In total, Waite and others may feed 90 players, 18 coaches, three trainers, 45 ball boys, two equipment managers and various scouts, security, corporate personnel, marketing staff and interns and members of the press during a busy lunch. They also make breakfast and dinner for the team and often, a late night snack.Waite, 63, has been working with Wofford staffers (who work for the food service company, Aramark) to feed the Panthers for 19 years. His days begin typically about 4:15 a.m. and sometimes don't end until midnight on days when the team has a night practice and requires a light, late dinner. All told, Waite and Wofford staff serve 850 to 1,000 meals a day during camp.“But it's fun,” said Waite, a native of England. “The players are all incredible people. They're still kids, a lot of them, and they treat everyone with a lot of respect.”Breakfast is a full spread - scrambled eggs, egg substitutes, turkey and pork bacon or sausage, grits, hashbrowns, waffles, pancakes, french toast, an omelet station, fresh fruit and smoothies. Monday's lunch included baked cod and chicken, stuffed peppers, hamburgers and turkey burgers, grilled chicken, stir-fried squash, peas and mushrooms, a deli bar, salad bar and two soups - beef vegetable and lentil. For dinner, Waite typically adds a pasta or Asian food station. The food is cooked at the Burwell Building, which has a full kitchen, then brought to the Campus Life Building, where it is served.Lunch or dinner may require 200 pounds of steak, which Waite cuts himself, 50 to 60 pounds of pork, 80 pounds of chicken, 50 pounds of fish, 40 pounds of vegetables, 15-20 pounds of a starch like rice or potatoes and three to four cases of lettuce. Waite makes sure that the salad bar is stocked with tomatoes, peppers, celery and cucumbers, up to 50 pounds a day - add ons that contain a lot of water to help the players stay properly hydrated. “Down there,” Waite said, nodding toward the direction of the training field, “the water boys are pouring water down the players' throats. Up here, we direct them to the salad bar. If you eat just meat and potatoes, you die.”Waite owns a culinary consulting business, The English Connection, and has worked as a chef at Caesars in Atlantic City, and with Hyatt. He owned a restaurant in New York City's West Village during the 1970s called the Yellow Brick Road. He completed a chef apprenticeship in London in 1967 and trained for 9 months in Paris. He has lived in the United States permanently since 1984.Waite missed the first year of Panthers training camp at Wofford, but has worked it every summer since, for the past 19 years. He said he enjoys his return to Wofford every year, due in part to the veterans staffing the kitchen.“From a selfish perspective, it's wonderful,” Waite said of longtime staff like Carolyn Bonner, Ellen Fowler and Bryant Williams. “I give them the food, and they know what they're doing.”Williams, 45, has worked in the kitchen at Wofford for 27 years, doing a little bit of everything. He said working training camp is a dream come true for him, and he enjoys joking around with the players.Bonner, 60, has worked at Wofford for 38 years - first as employee of the college, then with Aramark. She remembers that first year of training camp. The kitchen workers didn't know what to expect.“It's been wonderful,” she said. “The players are always so nice.”Bonner works as a first shift supervisor. “I would love to work with Aidan all the time,” she said. “He's a people person, and he works. He doesn't expect us to do anything he wouldn't do.”Fowler, whose name tag reads, “Ms. Ellen,” is sort of a mother figure around the kitchen. The 72-year-old has worked at Wofford for 44 years, beginning her long career for $1.95 an hour, when the student body was still all male. Each year, Fowler collects photos taken with all the Panthers players. She's semi-retired, but still works the morning shift during training camp, and three hours a day four days a week during the school year, with Friday as her “loafing day,” she says with a smile.Working all 20 years of Panthers camp at Wofford allowed Fowler to get to know some of the players, the veterans like retired kicker John Kasay, well. She even posed in pictures with Kasay's children over the years.“He started camp when I started,” Fowler said. “He looked like a boy when he started. I miss Steve (Smith) this year, too. Wow, the Lord blessed me to work for an NFL team.”Brian Bass, 47, buses tables and washes dishes at Wofford and is working his second year of training camp. He says he's not a sports fan but has been paying more attention to both the Panthers and Wofford Terriers since he started his job at the college. Monday, he wore a Terriers cap and a Panthers t-shirt to work.“It was culture shock at first - these 300 pound giants,” Bass said. “It was very intimidating. But I got used to it. Some of the players are easy to talk to.”Bass said he enjoyed a recent visit to camp by former left tackle Jordan Gross, who has lost 70 pounds since his retirement from the Panthers earlier this year and “looks fantastic.” “It's a fascinating world,” Bass said of training camp. “It's a good look inside the inner workings of an NFL team.”

Follow Jenny Arnold on Twitter @JennyArnoldSHJ

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